4 more win National Merit Scholarships

Four more graduates from Lawrence high schools have received National Merit Scholarships.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced another round of scholarship winners this week. From Lawrence they include Free State High School graduates Mitchell Haverty, Josh Frederick and Maxwell Gregoire, and Bishop Seabury Academy graduate Erika O'Shea.

"There's definitely a lot of prestige. It's a really nice feeling," said Haverty, who plans to attend Kansas University to study linguistics.

All four winners said their high school teachers helped them prepare for the qualifying test they took as juniors.

"I think Bishop Seabury gave me a lot of support and also the academic preparation for the test," said O'Shea, who plans to study engineering and business at KU.

Gregoire remembers taking practice tests and studying hard for them. "It's nice to know that it paid off," he said.

Now it has earned him a scholarship to use at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where he plans to study physics.

Frederick, who will attend KU to study architecture, said that the scholarship will allow him to continue his interest in jazz music. He won't have to find a job to cover costs.

"This is going to pay for a lot and help pay for college, so that's a plus," he said.

Frederick, O'Shea and Haverty earned National Merit W. Harold Otto scholarships, awarded by KU. Gregoire has earned the National Merit University of Nebraska-Lincoln Scholarship. The scholarships from the institutions will provide between $500 to $2,000 annually for up to four years for the winning students.

The final round of college-sponsored scholarship winners will be announced in July. Earlier this year three Lawrence graduates, Justine Ahle, Erin Thimmesch and Martin Blanchard, were named corporate scholarship winners, and two graduates, Cori Allen and Michael Penny, won National Merit $2,500 scholarships.

This year, Lawrence had 20 National Merit finalists.

When the final list of winners is announced, 8,200 graduates nationally will have received scholarships worth $36 million. More than 1.4 million juniors took the qualifying test in 2006.